Karaz-a-Karak – Mining District

Deep below Karaz-a-Karak mine shafts cut through the mighty Everpeak as the dwarves dig ever deeper searching for precious metals. The central hub for this operation is the Mining District of the Eastern Lower Reaches. Where the Western Lower Reaches’ atmosphere is marked with warmth, fire, and brightness, the Eastern Lower Reaches are dark, cold and dank with water dripping from the ceiling. The two key centers of the Eastern Lower reaches before one enters the endless mines are the Miner’s Guild and the Mine Junction. The Miner’s Guild is an oasis in this dark corner of Karaz-a-Karak, a small town with places of rest, a municipal bath house, and of course the ever popular tavern, Grit and Gravel. The Miner’s Guild is a place of respite for the miners as they rotate in and out of week-long shifts. South of the Miner’s Guild is a robust dam holding back the subterranean river that flows beneath the floor of Karaz-a-Karak. Without this dam mining operations in the lower reaches would be near impossible with many of the tunnels being flooded. Day and night pumps work to drain the tunnels of their water and the dam is the only thing holding back the deluge. Down the corridor from the Miner’s Guild is the Mine Junction, an eight way rotating rail platform which allows carts to travel in any direction without a complex rail network. The dwarves operating the rotating rail platform are fiercely proud of their ingenuity. From the Mine Junction eight tunnels branch out in different directions, the one directly to the north going to the Karaz-a-Karak Station cavern, the other seven spanning out under the city. Heavily armored Iron Breakers patrol the tunnels, ever wary of a breach from the ever-present nemesis of the Dwarves, the Greenskins.

Miner’s Guild
Accessible via the stairs in the Hall of Kings, down the rail tunnel from the Karaz-a-Karak Station, or via the rail connecting the Eastern to the Western Lower Reaches, the Miner’s Guild is in fact a plaza which is the public square of the miners, their actual living quarters lay behind a grand set of doors to the west of the chamber. The miners are brute force and little brawn, but anyone caught unwelcome in their hall will have a fierce brawl on their hands. Recent efforts to counter-mine the tunnels being used by the invaders have raised enough alarms for the invaders to push to the Miner’s Guild and challenge their leader – with the hope that his fall would mean the end of the project. However, in order to anger him enough to incite his arrival the invaders must first put his realm to the torch, but approach this task with caution for the miners are not a simple bunch to deal with. Armed with implements meant to tear rocks apart and move mountains, they surely will have little problem bypassing shoddy armor of inferior craftsmanship.

Snorri ‘Gravelbottom’ Stonehand
The guild master of the miners is Snorri Stonehand, or as he is known behind his back – ‘Gravelbottom’. Generations of miners have earned his clan the name of Stonehand, and rest assured it is not simply due to profession. Snorri Stonehand is a level 58 Miner lord, and he has had the rare privilege of having his mining pick and hammer inscribed with powerful runes by the Runesmiths of Karaz-a-Karak. Snorri Stonehand’s weapons are infused with : the Master Rune of Alric the Mad which allows him to reduce his targets armor by ‘x’ for 15 seconds; the Rune of Fire which allows his attacks to deal elemental damage; the Master Rune of the Adamant which increases his toughness twofold; and the Master Rune of Kadrin which allows him to deal ‘x’% more damage to targets within 20 feet of him. Snorri Stonehand’s attacks primarily focus on wearing down his targets defenses; so although they initially do not do much damage, the more the debuffs stack and the weaker his targets defenses get, the more damage he deals. Even though the debuffs he puts on his target can be cleansed, he applies them faster than a healer can cleanse. A key feature of this boss is that his attack speed is rather high, so he will wear down his targets quickly causing his attackers to rotate his aggro. Every 10% of his health he will light a fuse linked to hidden bombs about the chamber which will detonate for 8k damage, so once the fuse is lit and the bombs appear, the invaders have seconds to move or be blasted to bits. The bombs are located on a predetermined grid so there is always room in between bombs to avoid the blast radius.
Upon defeating Snorri Stonehand he has an ‘x’% chance of dropping a repairable piece of Monarch Jewelry for range dps classes. He also has an ‘x’% chance of dropping a two-handed glaive for Black Guards – “The Sundering”

Cave-In : Mine Junction
Phase 1: Destroy the Rotating Rail Platform

Mine Junction
East of the Miner’s Guild is the Mine Junction, and its centerpiece is the Rotating Rail Platform. The operating booth for the rail platform above is manned by engineers and they will rain death from above so long as they are allowed to exist up there. The floor of the Mine Junction itself is littered with mounds upon mounds of rocks, gravel, dirt, and debris. This creates natural obstacles for the thunderers down below that have been sent by the Engineer’s Guild to defend the Junction. They will bob up and down taking shots at the invaders and will generally not move past their mounds. The platform itself is guarded by four Ironbreaker heroes, so although there isn’t a lot of trash to clear in this particular fight, the trash is rather bothersome. Once you have succeeded in destroying the mechanism that rotates the platform the chamber shakes with the anger of the dwarves.

Sigrum Slendershank
The defender of this deep dark realm is Sigrum Slendershank, a 66 MPAT level 58 Ironbreaker lord. His flexibility and unpredictability in the fight lays in his access to all the abilities ironbreakers have. As with all bosses in Karaz-a-Karak, Sigrum Slendershank’s weapons are infused with powerful runes to aide him in battle. The Grudge Rune causes taunt and challenge to be half as effective; the Master Rune of Steel increases his armor by ‘x’%; The Rune of Shielding decreases the amount of damage he tanks from range attacks over 50 feet by ‘x’%; and the Rune of Iron increases his resists by ‘x’%. The intention of his runes is to decrease the effectiveness of attackers from far so that they come closer for him to deal with. His unique mechanic is that he will not move off the platform during the fight; however, to prevent the invaders simply attacking him from range he has a built in mechanic to force players to confront him. Essentially what he does is for every second he is not attacking someone with melee abilities he will use an ability called ‘Shattering Vibrations’ and slam his weapon into the ground doing aoe damage for 50 feet – this damage will hit the four support columns of the chamber and damage them. Once a column takes enough damage it collapses and that quadrant of the Mine Junction is buried under rubble (slowly killing anyone underneath). So to counter this someone must hold his aggro and engage him in melee combat, but this is not to say that he will not knock back the main tank and begin to channel his Shattering Vibrations. The support columns can be repaired using bulwark to slow their destruction. He will also stagger a random target on the platform and a train car shall come careening down from the Karaz-a-Karak Staion, knocking the staggered person inside and wooshing them down a tunnel, causing them to run back to the fight. As if this was not all complex enough, at every 20% interval of his life he will call forth the Ironbreakers of the tunnels and a champion will emerge from each of the seven mine tunnels. Now if you chose the path of exploration and found the kegs of black powder in the Miner’s Guild and planted them at the dam and blew it up… you know, because finding things to destroy should be what you’re doing, then the southern three tunnels would be flooded and champions would not spawn from those locations, thus decreasing the amount of champions you deal with from seven to four.
Upon defeating Sigrum Slendershank he has an ‘x’% chance of dropping repairable Monarch Shoulders for tanks and healers. He also has an ‘x’% chance of dropping a dagger for Witch Elves – “The Gromril Blood Seeker” and a dagger for Disciples of Khaine – “The Gromril Soul Cutter”.

Lore
Snorri ‘Gravelbottom’ Stonehand is a creature of my own creation. I could not find a noteworthy miner of lore to fill this role so random thoughts took place. Sigrum Slendershank is a character from the Ziggurat scenario from the first edition of Warhammer, and he alas was the only Ironbreaker I could find to fulfill the role of a boss in the city. However, Ironbreakers are the guardians of abandoned tunnels and mine shafts so I found the location fitting for an Ironbreaker to guard.